A Good Day! And More BTI...

That's what we've had! It's been a good, happy day full of good news and productive ventures. :-) Although we spent most of the day in the van...

We loaded up first thing this morning and drove to Vanderwagon, New Mexico, (just south of Gallup) to check out a campground for possible use in the future for Family Camp or Minister's Retreat. We got there at about 11:30, I think, and didn't spend too much time looking around because they are currently conducting a camp and we didn't want to be in the way. But I love this campground!!! It has everything we could possibly ask for and more (except for the bathroom situation being less than ideal... still WORKABLE, but not perfect), it's actually set up perfectly for hosting a Family Camp (which is sooooo hard to find) and even the prices would work for us--which is more of a miracle than you can imagine! Ha! The only catch (and it is a big one) is the scheduling. But it's certainly something to pray about and explore our options concerning. I have no doubt that everybody would be THRILLED with this place--and where we could keep our tuition costs--if only we can figure out some dates that will actually work. God knows. We'll leave it up to Him. :-)

And...that was pretty much our day today! Got home this evening and made a few phone calls, let the kids watch a Veggie Tales, and put 'em to bed! So I guess that's all there is to tell. Wow--what a short post!

HA. Short until I post BTI pictures, of course. But nobody gripes when you have a really long post that's 90% pictures. :-) So here we go!

1st Term BTI... Again!

That's right. I went to 1st Term twice. After the Church was reorganized in 1993 we had to slowly build BTI up from scratch, so each year we added another term: 1994 had just 1st Term, 1995 had 1st and 2nd Terms, 1996 had 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Terms. But in 1997 they hadn't completed the books for 4th Term yet. So what was I to do??? I couldn't very well just sit at home and wait a whole other year, could I?! No way! So I just went to 1st Term again while I was waiting for 4th Term to come around. Of course, now they've done away with 4th Term and incorporated most of that material into the LPD course. Anyway...

1997 was Libby's 1st Term. It was so great having her there!

Amy was there again this year, but was newly married and not around quite as much as before. I'm not sure what was going on here, but it doesn't look like it was a very good day!

Here we are on our way into one of our most favoritest spots--The Gondolier. Their meatball sub is fantastical! :-) This is, so far, the only year that Chris Clarkson has been able to attend BTI. If he goes again, I'm sure his wife would ensure that we didn't have to hear any bragging about his ability to get a ride from any girl in the world as we had to listen to on this night! HA! If God ever created the perfect woman for a man, it was Shanda for Chris! :-)

Here's Brian O'Dell and his already infamous finger... Ha!

Here were are at the putt-putt place...being cool???

I easily beat Brother Brian at air hockey. Here we are displaying our scores...

And, not that I'm a competitive person or anything (~ahem~), but I felt strangely compelled to take a picture with our putt-putt score card that night, too... :-) This is Scott Nichols (Arkansas) and Johnny Witty (North Carolina).

"Princess Emilee" and I... or is it Princess Emilee and me? Hhmmm...

Don't know what's going on here, but I remember loving Brother Brian's t-shirt!

Some of the crowd... A very, very young crowd--just look at everybody!!! Especially Matthew... WOW.

I can't think of a good explanation for this one...

I love this picture because of how YOUNG Rebekah and Matthew look--and Dave, too. This was 1st Term for all of them. Bekah is so pretty!!!

Look, Weese! It's us and our big, round glasses again! ;-)

I think this was at Dairy Queen one night. We have Dairy Queen memories from just about every year at BTI, I think!

Here's Brother Ray consoling Libby... perhaps on test day?

The Williams are some of the truly wonderful "old people" that we grew to know and love because of BTI. How sad it would have been to have never met them!

Jenna, be sure that Matthew gets to see some of these pictures if you can remember. I'm sure he'd enjoy them. :-) Here he is with Melissa.

Manda girl...

Back at the putt-putt place again...

I know I keep saying this, but look how young we look! Ha! I always enjoy being around Brother Chris because, although he's older than me--I would say considerably older than me ;-), we seem to be aging at the very same rate. I don't mind getting old so bad as long as other people are getting old with me. :-) Here we are before all that started though, with Johnny Witty...

And the traditional train pictures, of course!



And the last-night-pile-up-front-after-church picture, too.

~sigh~ It's so fun to look back at all of these! Such great times. 4th Term to come. :-)